Good morning, CHURCH!

Welcome to FFM where we are here to connect people to the love of God through biblical teaching, loving community, and relational small groups.

(Church joke of the day)

I saw a ‘For Sale’ by owner sign the other day that read: Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica, Excellent condition.

I stopped and asked how much he wanted for them.

He said, “I’ll let the entire set go for $25.00.

I said, “Why in the world are you selling them so cheap. Is there something wrong with them?”

He said, “There is nothing wrong with them. They are in great shape.”

“So, why are you getting rid of them?”

He said, “I no longer need them, I got married; my wife knows everything!”

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Pray (Lord help us to see you as new and fresh through your word today.)

Let’s go to the book of Mark 9:21-24 NLT for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

We’ve been talking in this series were on about unbelieving believers.

I want you to pause the direction we’ve been going for a moment because there was an account in the Bible where Jesus encountered an actual unbelieving believer.

He was probably more like a believer with some uncertainty.

His son was possessed by a demon spirit that kept trying to destroy him.

He had heard about the healing power and miracles that were being performed by Jesus and the disciples.

But when the disciples cast out the demon spirits nothing happened.

So, that cause doubt or unbelief in the man.

So, they brought him to Jesus.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Mark 9:21-24

21“How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.

22 He replied, “Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us if you can.”

23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

Let’s get into today’s message.

I am in a series titled:

Unbelieving Believers wk.4

Last week I answered the question, why should I read the Bible?

*When you read the Bible, you get to know the God of the Bible.

(There is no way to get to know someone without talking to them or reading the truth about them.)

*The God of the Bible might be different than the God of your church growing up

or the God of your dear grandmother

or the God presented on social media

or the God of your Sunday school teacher

*When you get to know the God of the Bible you begin to know real love.

*When you know the love of God everything about your life begins to change.

*When everything about your life changes it will draw others around you that knew you.

Today’s message title is:

The Narrow Path

Today we’re going to talk about what to do now that I’ve started reading the Bible and obeying God but the society around me is doing something Different?

(As I look over the landscape of what’s being presented to us, I see so many celebrities or television personalities that are confessing to be Christians or followers of God.)

What do I do when the Bible conflicts with the society around me?

This is a question that Christians have always had to wrestle with, and it is certainly challenging a lot of Christians today.

(Especially Unbelieving Believers)

We are all faced with this conflict.

Today let’s simplify how this conflict has always been handled and how it’s handled today.

There has always been one of two options.

Either we abandon the beliefs of the Bible, or we embrace the beliefs of the Bible.

Regardless of which option you choose I’m referring to those that confess to be Christians and say that their faith is important to them.

If you choose to abandon the beliefs of the Bible you have decide that what the Bible says was good for the original hearers, but that it is no longer good for us today.

If you choose to embrace the beliefs of the Bible you have decide that what the Bible says was good for its original hearers, and it is still good for us today.

Point #1

The Bible’s narrow path for sex.

What do we do when the teaching of the Bible is that sex outside of marriage is wrong, and yet our society embraces the value of sexual freedom and casual sex?

It depends on whether you are a believer or an unbelieving believer.

If you chose to embrace the beliefs of the Bible you would say, “Sex being for heterosexual marriage only was good for the Israelites and the first-century Christians, and it is still good for us to follow this today.”

If you chose to abandon the beliefs of the Bible you would say, “It was good for the Israelites and the first-century Christians to save sex for marriage, but it is no longer something that is necessary for Christians today.”

The same would apply for the Bible’s narrow path of marriage.

Mark 10:6-8 NLT

“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So, they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Marriage is for one man and one woman.

Man and woman are defined by God and only by God.

You either choose to embrace what God has set in place or you choose to abandon it.

Leviticus 18:22 NLT

Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.

I know if you stand with God the creator on this, society will come strongly against you.

Just tell them, “Don’t get mad at me get mad at God, He created us, and He sets the order.”

Exodus 20:14 NLT

You shall not commit adultery.

This has nothing to do with how happy you are with your spouse or how dissatisfied you are with your spouse.

But Pastor J it’s hard.

I have an addiction.

We don’t get along.

He/she doesn’t meet my needs.

You either choose to embrace what God has set in place or you choose to abandon it.

Point #2

The Bible’s narrow path of salvation.

What do we do when the teaching of the Bible is that only those who embrace Jesus as the Messiah can be saved, but society celebrates an inclusive, pluralistic view of religion and faith?

John 14:6 NLT

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

You can’t get any narrower than one way.

Jesus is the one-way ticket to the Father.

How in the world do you think you’re going to have other ways to Father God when His word says that His son is the only way to Him?

You’re either going to choose to embrace that Jesus is the only way or choose to abandon it.

Point #3

The Bible’s narrow path for life.

Did you know that roughly 60% of people in America believe that abortion should be legal while less than 40% say it should be illegal.

That stat doesn’t shock me but what does shock me is that among all the different groups of people that confess to following the God of the Bible, that stats seem to only shift to about 60% against taking a life and 40% for taking a life.

The reason it’s not higher is because some of these people polled are unbelieving believers.

Among evangelical Christians 78% believe abortion should be illegal.

There was even a category that I didn’t know existed.

There is a category called self-identified Christians who are not born again.

Only 54% of them were for making abortion illegal.

What is the Bible’s narrow path on life?

Exodus 20:13 NLT

You must not murder.

Genesis 9:5-6 NLT

“And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. 6 If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image.

Psalm 139:13-16 NLT

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

God the creator has said in His word when life begins.

You either roll with society and embrace that the right to choose to give an infant life or to murder them belongs to the human being verses the God that created them in the womb.

Or you embrace the creator of life and go against the society around you.

If you’re watching online or here in the building, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?